Brand systems
Naming direction, wordmark, type and colour, then the rules that keep it steady once other people start using it.
- Positioning & messaging
- Logotype & marks
- Guidelines your team can follow
Independent studio · Brand & digital
We weave scattered ideas into a brand that holds together.
Elio Loom is a five-person studio working with founders and small teams on identity, websites and the everyday materials a company needs to sound like itself.
Our workroom in the old textile quarter — where every project starts on paper before it reaches a screen.
Capabilities
Four things we do properly, rather than twenty we do adequately.
Most engagements combine two of these. We will tell you plainly when a brief needs a specialist we are not.
Websites
Design and front-end build for marketing sites that stay fast, legible and easy to update long after launch.
- Structure & content model
- Design through to build
- Handover & editor training
Campaign design
A single idea carried across the places it needs to live, so a launch reads as one gesture instead of five.
- Art direction
- Social & print adaptation
- Launch assets
Content systems
Templates, tone notes and component libraries that let a small team keep publishing without asking us first.
- Editorial templates
- Tone of voice notes
- Component libraries
How we work
A short, visible process with something to look at every fortnight.
No long silences and no surprise reveal at the end. Each stage finishes with a thing you can read, use or argue with.
Listen
A working session with the people who answer for the brand, plus a read of whatever you already have.
Ends with: a written briefFrame
We narrow to one direction with a reason attached, rather than three options hoping one lands.
Ends with: a direction noteMake
Design and build in short loops, shown in the real medium — on a screen, at size, with your own words in it.
Ends with: a working draftHand over
Files, rules and a walkthrough, so the work keeps going when we step back out of the room.
Ends with: a handover kitSelected work
Three recent engagements, described the way the clients describe them.
Project names are shortened at our clients' request. We are happy to walk through the full story in a call.
Marrow & Vine
A regional grower selling direct for the first time. We built the name architecture, packaging type and a label system their own print shop can extend to new produce without us.
The Longford Season
One season, nine events, one idea. Posters, programme and social cut-downs drawn from a single grid so the season looked whole from across the street.
Halstead Partners
A twelve-page site reduced to five, rewritten with the partners, and rebuilt so their office manager can publish a new practice page in an afternoon.
The studio
Five people, one room, and a preference for finishing things.
Elio Loom began as two designers sharing a desk and a stubborn idea: that a small studio can do careful work if it refuses to take on more than it can hold. We have grown to five and kept the rule.
- One senior lead per project. The person in your first meeting is the person doing the work.
- Fixed scope, written down. Changes are welcome and always re-quoted before anyone starts.
- You own everything. Source files and fonts licensed in your name at handover.
- Two projects at a time. It is why we sometimes say no, and why deadlines hold when we say yes.
Questions
The things people ask before they send the form.
How big does a project need to be?
Most engagements run from a few weeks for a focused piece — a site refresh, a campaign — up to a few months for a full identity and build. If your brief is smaller than that, say so and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right studio or point you somewhere better suited.
What are your typical timelines?
A website usually takes six to ten weeks from brief to launch; a brand system eight to twelve. Because we run two projects at a time, the honest variable is when we can start, not how long it takes once we do.
How much of our time will this need?
Expect a half-day workshop at the start, then roughly an hour a fortnight to review what we have made. Decisions move faster when the same two or three people attend each time.
Do you work on retainer after launch?
Sometimes, as a small monthly block of design and build hours for the ongoing things — a new page, a seasonal campaign. We prefer to set that up after a first project, once we both know how we work together.
What do you need from us to start?
A sense of what has changed in your business, anything you have already made, and one person who can make the final call. Polished materials are not required — a rough description is enough for a first conversation.
Start a project
Tell us what you are trying to change.
A paragraph is plenty. One of the two leads reads every enquiry and replies with either a few questions or a time to talk.
Prefer email? Write to studio@elioloom.example and include roughly the same detail.